These 10 days are not necessarily a change to your life. I know many people already try and do their best to improve the world a bit every single day. However, it is very good to do the things that come naturally with a bit more attention sometimes. And believe me, there is still enough of a challenge left even if you already enlighten other people their lives every day. Some days just creep up on you and before you know it they are over. Some days you are just so over occupied with work, with your family, with your pet, with the household, that you hardly notice that the day already is over.

Society demands of us that we are flexible, that we take in a lot of information and that we continuously show ourselves at our best. And while doing our best to live up to the expectations we embodied, sometimes we just feel exhausted, we just want to go home, want to go to bed and sleep. Sometimes we are working so hard, we hardly notice it is way passed bed time and we forget to take enough time to sleep and relax, things that are essential. Sleep and rest not only help you recover, it helps you to develop, to grow. That is something that goes for the muscles as well as for the mind.

The previous days my deed existed of buying people stuff. Yesterday I cut someone else some slack. A colleague who has just become a father was tired of all the broken nights. All I did was assuring him that it was fine to go home. I would finish his work. That’s it. I can’t make it any more fancy. It gave him an extra 15 minutes.

That is the beauty of it all. Surprising someone, making someone’s day, helping someone out, giving something to another person, it does not have to cost you much. You don’t need to have money to make the world a better place. Sometimes a little compliment, a little bit of time, can be enough. Sometimes it is even just a smile that will crack someone up. So go out there, have fun!

A little while ago, I was short on money. I had broken up with my partner and moving to a new apartment, setting things up, while graduating and having little time completely drained the little reserves I had. Luckily I had my parents bailing in for me and a lot of friends and strangers helping me out with utilities everyone needs in a house (I hardly had anything). After sleeping on the floor for about a month I even got a bed from a colleague and I only had to survive 2 weeks without a stove. I can’t complain! But the money issues weren’t over. I had to pay the bills and they were piling up, because I simply could not pay them. I had to figure out a way to recover and to become independent.

Thank you Liza, it still is an awesome bed!

I want to share this story with you, because I know there might be one person reading this, who needs to know he or she is not the only one, and there is a way out, there will be better times. So here we go, this is how I regained my independence.

The dark months
The first thing I did was going over my expenses. I cut on all the costs I could. I hardly paid 15 Euros on my groceries a week, including everything: food, cat food, cloths, cleaning materials, everything! I cancelled all my subscriptions, which were few already. I tried to take my bike as much as possible, or walk. I stopped going out to places I needed to pay anything and could not bring my own bottle of water. You get the picture. There was not much left and still I was worrying about the next bill in my mail box. This was not the life I wanted to live. Time for change.

I figured I would give myself a year to balance things out. 1 year of extremely hard work. A second job, a third job, hardly any spare time. I knew I could work hard and so I did. I started to send mails to bars, asking if they had any work for me. I started to look for freelance jobs on the internet, anything that would pay. Eventually I did some incidental bar shifts, at cool bars I must add, and I found out that working as a mystery shopper was also compatible with my day job. On an average day I had time to sleep about 5 hours a night, the rest of the day was filled with working and commuting. It drained my energy. I was exhausted. I was quite happy though, because I was dealing with my sorrows in an active way. I still woke up more energized than I went to bed, I recharged every night, but there were few highlights.

Eventually all of this paid out. I did not complain. I did not share my exhausted moments on social media. I just worked hard and one day I looked at my bank account and there were no red numbers on my screen. All my bills were paid and my pay check was coming up. That was one of the most glorious moments I experienced that year: I was independent. I had solved my own problem!

Keep learning, keep moving, keep growing

What about now?
Fast forward to today: I have three jobs, I sleep over 7 hours (almost) every night. I have a lot of energy and every day has highlights and new memories to add to my memoires if I ever write those. I can buy the cloths that I need and I can eat enough to sustain a healthy body. I can go out and I do fun things with friends. But still three jobs. Why? Because I love it.

I am not a work-a-holic. I just have hobbies that fit a job description. In the months I ws solving my money issues, I did not take the time to think about if I liked what I was doing, I just did it. Now I have some more room to move and some more time, I re-discovered that work does not only helps you to pay the bills, but it helps you to grow as a person as well. One of the first things I did when I had saved enough money, was going back to school. I started a course to become a certified fitness instructor and I succeeded. I started my internship at a gym and by now I am a fitness instructor at that very same gym. I am still taking courses to become better and I love every hour I spend on sports and fitness.

I still run Cassette Culture, which is my baby. We are even expanding, looking for more chief editors and coordinators to make the entire magazine better and even more awesome. And then there is my day job. Sometimes I have those days, even weeks, that I don’t like going there, you know, work is low, no challenges, little contact with colleagues.. But most of the time I am having a great time over there too! Working towards deadlines, solving problems, thinking out processes and structures, teaching and learning, sharing thoughts and visions, honestly, I do not have the right to complain.

There is a trapSo, there is always a way out, no matter how hard the situation. You might not like the solutions always, but if you think smart and plan your way out, you can get there. But beware, if you start working your way out of your sorrows, this will have a long term effect as well. During the months I worked my butt off, I isolated myself, because I wanted to solve this by myself. People did not always notice what was going on and they thought that I had everything on track. I did not communicate publicly about my endeavours and I did not complain. There were a few close friends who knew what was going on and I did get support, but besides my closest friends and my parents, no one was really worried about it all.

Always care

These days I do so many things that I love doing, things that provide me with endless supplies of energy. Things. I want to share these things, these memories with everyone in the world, and I do. A lot of people think that my life is easy as a cool summer breeze and some people envy me for that, some even to negative extends. Others start worrying about me, feeling that I am doing too much, taking too little breaks. This sometimes brings me in difficult situations, but again, same as when I was walking my dark roads, I have nothing to complain about. Why? Because I am responsible for my own life, for the decisions I make, and I make decisions I am happy with. I work for the things I believe in and I try to share my energy with as many people as I can, because I wish everyone the same energy.

So, there you go. I hope sharing this story brings you something, in any way, something positive. If you have any questions or so, feel free to leave a comment below!